After becoming emperor, everything was fine, except for one thing that made Jiang Yue uncomfortable: her ministers began urging her to have a child. According to the ministers, this matter was more important than the Northern Expedition. As long as Jiang Yue did not have an heir, the country could not be at peace.
Jiang Yue already has a solution to this matter. She has used the original owner's blood to raise a child. Bai Ze has already raised the child and is currently learning relevant knowledge. It is not time for him to appear in the world yet. Only a few people know of his existence. Jiang Yue plans to let him out after the world is at peace. At that time, he will face a storm, after all, Jiang Yue will leave sooner or later.
By mid-year, the Ming Dynasty's 300,000-strong army had arrived in Sichuan. Sichuan has always been a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. However, a wave of the defending generals there had already died, and many of the later ones were people planted by Jiang Yue. Most of them had already been placed under house arrest when the Ming army arrived, but there were still some who were active. They said that the food supplies there were almost exhausted.
This battle was personally led by Jiang Yue. With cannons firing in unison, one-fifth of the 300,000-strong army was wiped out, resulting in widespread chaos and destruction.
Don't think that Jiang Yue's use of cannons was somewhat unfair. If he could kill the enemy, why should he let his own people die? After the war, about 100,000 of the 300,000 Ming soldiers remained. Most of them had already surrendered, and the rest either fled or died.
The emperor personally led the expedition, and the Ming army of 300,000 was completely annihilated, with 200,000 dead or wounded and 100,000 captured. This news shocked the entire world.
In the following year, Jiang Yue's army swept through the land, conquering and distributing land to local tyrants wherever they went. Later, before the army even started fighting, the people opened the city gates for them, joyfully welcoming them into the city.
Fortunately, Jiang Yue was worried about not having enough people to use in the future, so she started training talents early. There were not enough low-level officials to go around, and some students who were about to graduate were pulled out. Fortunately, new schools have begun to be established and enrollment is going smoothly. In three to five years, many more people will graduate.
There's never too much talent. Schools have been established in the newly conquered areas, including primary, middle, high school, and university schools. The school locations are similar to those in modern society, with primary schools being the most numerous, followed by middle schools, then high schools, and universities being the fewest. Jiang Yue has reformed the curriculum a lot, which is good for now while we're still conquering the land. It'll be different once the country is stable.
In the first few years, the school was built, but there weren't many students because no one approved of it. In the end, Jiang Yue allowed the children of officials to enroll first. In ancient times, it was much easier to reform from the top down. What the superiors liked, the inferiors would follow even more. At first, many people entered the school with the sole purpose of currying favor with the powerful.
But over time, things naturally changed. In the second year, Jiang Yue started compulsory education, and children from poor families also had the opportunity to go to school. Here, Jiang Yue no longer had to worry about a lack of students, but instead began to worry about a lack of teachers and schools. After the puppets were used up, the robots were sent up instead.
Two more years passed, and the conquered territories had been fully digested. Now, of the two capitals and thirteen provinces, only "Northern Zhili," which is today's Beijing, Tianjin, most of Hebei Province, and small parts of Henan and Shandong Provinces, remained unconquered. This was not because they were incapable of being conquered, but because Jiang Yue was digesting the territories that had already been conquered and was putting them aside for the time being.
The timing is perfect. Jiang Yue plans to unify the country, mainly because his subordinates are getting impatient. So Jiang Yue has given in to their wishes. However, this time Jiang Yue will not lead the expedition in person, but will hand it over to his generals. He should give them a chance, shouldn't he?
General Song, who had just been appointed, was overjoyed and couldn't wait to set off on his campaign. However, the reality was beyond his expectations. When he conquered other places and reached Beijing, he found that, just like in other cities, the local people killed the guards and opened the city gates. General Song felt no sense of accomplishment at all.
After unifying the country, Jiang Yue moved the capital to Beijing. He did not exterminate the Wanli Emperor and his ministers. Just like in other places, he punished the guilty and released the innocent. The emperor and his children were all banished to a garden by Jiang Yue. He said that they might be released in a few years.
At the first court session after unification, Jiang Yue brought Jiang Chenyu along and issued the first imperial edict after unification, establishing Jiang Chenyu as the crown prince. Some ministers objected to the edict, but seeing that the powerful officials were calm and had no objections, they swallowed their words.
At the first court assembly, Jiang Yue divided the national army into five war zones according to the later Chinese system. However, many places are now actually out of the control of the court and can only be stationed in nearby areas.
With the country newly unified, Jiang Yue plans to first restore the domestic economy and people's livelihood. The first five-year plan will be used to eliminate the remaining forces and bandits, and then build military factories, roads, ships, etc. Jiang Yue plans to reach the level of China in the 1940s and 1950s after the first five-year plan.
Five years later, development was slower than Jiang Yue had anticipated. The political, military, and economic levels had reached the level of the Republic of China era, not as fast as he had imagined. The first five-year plan could be said to have been incomplete. This was mainly because Jiang Yue had gradually reduced the interference of puppets and appointed officials from the local world. It took a lot of time for them to adapt.
Education has seen significant development in the past five years. Jiang Yue replicated the 985 Project and established 39 new key universities as an advanced supplement to the original education system, with even more primary and secondary schools.
In terms of people's livelihood, after the completion of the five-year plan, the number of wholesale markets for agricultural and sideline products nationwide has reached 500, and the number of urban and rural trade markets has reached 21,000, including 2,000 specialized markets for agricultural and sideline products, initially forming a new pattern of large-scale markets and circulation across the country.
The development of transportation has also been quite significant. Railways in major cities are now basically interconnected. The main reason is that Jiang Yue is reluctant to use his own people, as they are too tiring. In a few years, he will expand outwards. After occupying territory, the original people can be used to build roads, so that he doesn't have to follow Bai Qi's example of massacring prisoners.
After the start of the second five-year plan, Jiang Yue began to expand outwards. This time, the operation was very large. The five war zones were mobilized almost simultaneously. Among them, the Northern War Zone moved the fastest, splitting its forces into two routes. One route attacked the Jianzhou Jurchens, and the other route crossed the Yalu River to attack Goryeo. In just one month, they reached Pyongyang.
It wasn't that they stopped fighting, but rather that the Japanese pirates sent troops to support them. However, this resistance was of little use, merely wasting some of the army's ammunition. Within six months, the entire territory of Goryeo was occupied. Some of the prisoners were kept here to build railways, while others were brought back to China to build railways and other projects, making the best use of them.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
